Tales and Stories

The charm of stories, novellas, and novels by Konstantin Georgievich Paustovsky does not weaken with the years. In articles, scholarly works, and memoirs, the portrait of an outstanding artist is recreated—a zealous protector of the treasures of world culture, a connoisseur of native nature. Behind the pages of his prose lies the uniqueness of his personality and the unmistakability of his time. One fact is telling: living through the terrible Stalin years, Paustovsky did not join the Party, did not write a single work praising the “great leader,” and did not sign any letter or denunciation condemning any of his acquaintances.

During the court proceedings against writers A. D. Sinyavsky and Yu. M. Daniel, K. Paustovsky (together with K. Chukovsky) openly spoke in their defense, providing the court with positive reviews of their work. In 1965 he signed a letter requesting that A. I. Solzhenitsyn be given an apartment in Moscow, and in 1967 he supported Solzhenitsyn, writing a letter to the IV Congress of Soviet Writers demanding the abolition of censorship of literary works. Not long before his death, a severely ill Paustovsky sent a letter to A. N. Kosygin asking not to dismiss the chief director of the Taganka Theatre, Yu. P. Lyubimov. In this collection, you will find audio versions of the writer’s selected novellas and stories.

Contents:
Deep within Russia
A Rainy Dawn
The Ilyinsky Whirlpool
Streams where trout splash
Snow
Constellation of Hounds
An Old Cook